Collection Description

Culture Name

Eastern Apache

Culture Description

The Chiricahua are an Athapaskan-speaking Native American group whose traditional homeland was located in present-day southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, southwestern Texas, and northern Mexico. Originally nomadic, the Chiricahua subsistence pattern was based on hunting and the gathering of wild food plants, with only a minor amount of agriculture being practiced. During the second half of the nineteenth century the Chiricahua were forced onto reservations and other restricted sites on the Arizona-New Mexico border, then in Florida and Alabama, and finally in Oklahoma and south-central New Mexico. The Chiricahua were traditionally divided into from three to five bands, each made up of ten to thirty extended families.

Note

Select the Culture Summary link above for a longer description of the culture.

Region

Countries

OWC Code

Number of Documents

Number of Pages

925

Collection Overview

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF World Culture collection
and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The NT08 Chiricahua collection describes primarily the traditional culture of the
Chiricahua Apache as it existed during the late nineteenth century, based in large
part on the memories of informants. One of the major studies in this collection is
that of Opler (1941., no. 1). This work covers a wide range of ethnographic coverage,
based in large part on the memory ethnographies of his informants. The document emphasizes
socialization processes and life sequences from childhood to death and the afterlife.
Castetter and Opler (1936, no. 2) supplements the ethnographic data found in Opler
(1941, no. 1), and in addition provides information on plants used by the Chiricahua
and Mescalero Apache for food, drink, medicine, and narcotic purposes. An alphabetical
listing of common, Apache, and scientific names of plants to which reference has been
made in the text will be found at the end of this section. A brief summary of Chiricahua
ethnology, dating from approximately 1540 to 1970 will be found in Opler (1983, no.
5). This article describes tribal territory and subdivisions, culture history, demography,
political and social organization, subsistence, division of labor, the life cycle,
and religion. A useful synonymy appears at the end of this document. The monograph
by Stockel (c.1991, no. 6) is a study of four Apache women, and is basically autobiographical
in nature. Comparisons and contrasts are made between the life-styles of twentieth
century Apache women and those of the past. Ragsdale (2006), no. 7) discusses the
Chiricahua Apaches and the assimilation movement between 1865 and 1886. This work
examines the impact of assimilation on the tribe’s homeland, and deals specifically
with early attempts at reservation, confinement and economic transformation. It also
discusses the harsh, repressive measures employed in the attempts at reeducating and
remolding the captive people, their precipitous decline in health and spirit and their
revival in Oklahoma.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this collection
see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.